Alec McCowen - an esteemed theatre actor who also once played gadget-maker Q opposite James Bond star Sean Connery - has died at age 91.

His agent has confirmed that Alec passed away from undisclosed causes at his London home on Monday (February 6), according to The Washington Post.

While he was primarily a stage actor renowned for his incredible one-man show about the life of Jesus Christ, he was probably most widely seen as Q in Sean Connery's rogue Bond movie Never Say Never Again.

He also memorably played a detective torn between his search for a serial killer and his own domestic troubles in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Frenzy, in addition to appearing in the films The Witches, Gangs of New York and Henry V.

McCowen worked for the BBC in the early days of television with a starring role in Angel Pavement, and later brought his aforementioned one-man show The Gospel According to Saint Mark to Thames TV two decades later.

However, the stage was the most frequent creative outlet of McCowen's distinguished career. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he was a member of legendary ensembles with the Royal Shakespeare and Old Vic companies.

McCowen would earn three Tony Award nominations throughout his career. His many memorable credits included the original cast of Equus, The Misanthrope opposite Diana Rigg and his star turn as a delusional priest in Hadrian the Seventh.